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(1768–1833), the founder of the Church of God (Walkerites). Walker was born in Roscommon, the son of a Church of Ireland clergyman. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1790, was ordained priest in the Church of Ireland, and from 1794 to 1804 served as a chaplain in Bethesda chapel, the spiritual centre of Church of Ireland evangelicalism. Walker was also a fellow of Trinity College, an eminent classical scholar, and a formidable theological controversialist. In the early 1800s he became steadily more critical of the Church of Ireland and of his fellow evangelicals, resulting in his secession in 1804.